www.vox.com Trump’s defense in the 2020 election case, explained by legal experts
Trump and his lawyers are currently pursuing three lines of legal defense. How strong are they?
Isn’t Reddit currently messing up things with search? And yeah I’d agree with the stable users comment. We shall see what the next few months look like to tell.
I think that the adoption will mostly work in steps. Lemmy is currently functional, not pretty, not stable, not well moderated, not well integrated with federation, and poor discovery but it is functional.
Hopefully the next time a wave hits, Lemmy will be more mature and ready to take in more users who will already have communities set up even if they’re small.
I’m concerned though given the slower pace of updates that’s often complained about though.
Tbh it’s the reason I asked. I expected results to look about like this but I’m really interested in the graphs of posts vs active users.
Posting has exploded. I assume a good portion of that is bots. Bots posting news or reposting memes probably. However, a good portion of that must be users posting as well right?
I don’t think that retaining about half of the users that joined in the massive wave is bad actually, it’s the trends that come next where we see what happens. If that line keeps going down for the rest of the year, the platform is probably in trouble.
Is Lemmy still growing at a good rate?
I saw some stats on this months ago, especially after the initial explosion. I’m curious if the growth is still continuing at a good pace and also how everyone feels about the growth/activity within their communities.
Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video
This is my main concern about the game. With tech that moves this quickly, you have to understand that game companies who are established are living on the very edge of that debt.
Like starfield for example. Who knows how old it’s code is from the start of its development. It’s why Bethesda games break frequently and crash often. When you develop games on a 8-10 year cycle, think of how many hardware generations that is. 3 to 4 right? So when you’re talking about building an engine, then running it and building a game, then supporting it, all over the coarse of 15-20 years of coding? It’s a giant mess to program and there’s no way in hell it can be optimized properly.
Not to mention the massive task of upgrading the game as new hardware and new engine features arrive.
Precisely, they’re doing the same stuff as always. Police have a maximum affect on crime in an area. And city police can be particularly bad about certain types of crime where increasing the amount of police can lead to worse effects instead of better ones.
The protests were in large part a response about the damage that police do to communities and also about how they frequently escalate situations.
So what I’m speaking to here is that our society correctly pointed out the disadvantages of policing. And then correctly took funds from police. However, not many tools that would serve people better are in place.
It makes it really easy for “law and order” types of people to just tell us to go back to the same system we had before. And some of those tools take a long time to be effective but we have to start somewhere. Here ain’t it.
Well, it continued to increase post-pandemic as well. And even this dip in crime may be a transient state that does not keep decreasing.
My best explanation for this is that obviously people got desperate and the economy is one of the biggest predictors of crime. So inflation is also partially responsible for crime.
Not to mention that, despite me being very opposed to conservative narratives, I can see that policing was greatly disrupted by the protests in 2020/2021. They continue to be ineffective in most large cities basically. The US still has a long way to go on handling crime and criminals.
And they released it without a physical version for consoles and stated that’s because it helps them to keep the price higher. Big yikes.
Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video
I won’t tell people what to do with their money, but it’s clear people have bought in to both of these games existing. And if it were my money, I’d want to believe in these devs. But for the rest of us, these games need to materialize as functional and fully featured releases for us to care.
And I don’t think the timeline is crazy so far with their development. What’s wild to me is thinking that a newly founded studio, even a well funded one, can knock out a competent single player and MMO with these scopes. It’s slim chances from an outsiders perspective.
Take a look at what mature and well funded studios are putting out in 2023. The likes of Starfield are actually some of the better cases. I know the incentives are different, but still. So I’m expecting a lot of tooling to need to be done for both these games to exist and exist at an enjoyable playability by the end of the 20s.
Anyways, im not trying to kill enthusiasm for people who enjoy interest in the project but to everyone outside of that, this isn’t reassuring. All large scope games should be considered to be nonexistent until they hit reviewers hands at this point.
Space sim Squadron 42 is "feature-complete" and gunning for Starfield's lunch with massive new video
I still kind of doubt it’s going anywhere fast. Because a game with this scope has already signed up for some pretty massive post-launch support. Let’s be generous and say it takes them another 2-3 years to develop this single player and another 5-6 to finish star citizen. That’s very generous.
They started pre-production in 2010. So it’s already been 13 years of development with near unlimited money on SC. So again, add 5 years till a mainstream launch and another 3-5 years of active support and you’ll be well over two decades deep in a single games development. That’s half of someone’s career to develop one game. Now we add another game on top of this.
The other game is admittedly much easier to develop but still it will take massive amounts of support. If Bethesda can’t do it well, why does anyone think this dev can and in such good time? I have my doubts.
I actually think these apps are perfectly fine, I just think that you should have to request the location from the phone and then that request also alerts the kid.
I’ll paint a different picture for parents in this thread. Gen Z does not have adequate social spaces in which to exist. So when you say “hey I’m going to track you” it’s like oh cool, track me going where exactly? To basketball practice and back? Or to the mall so you can know which store I’m in?
Parents are gaining more and more control over their kids and I don’t think it’s good. They aren’t independent people. As a kid I hated having zero autonomy, it sucked. So all this is achieving is making kids feel like it’s less hassle to just stay at home and play video games.
Currently emulating the old Crash Team Racing as I make my way through most of the Crash Bandicoot games. The racing game is pretty hard as racing games go.
Still working on Divinity Original Sin 2. Game is fun and it’s a lot better than #1 in that series. It’s a large time investment but I do love the game.
I think people don’t often factor in that time in a game is just as much or more a cost than money is.
If I make it super nerdy, my equation for games would be more like fun / (money cost + time cost). But really I don’t actively quantify these things, I just have a sense of it.
The other thing id say is that games recently are being judged more on how they respect the players time. The max game money cost is locked in at $70, likely for a long time. So the thing being optimized right now is the fun/time part. Not respecting the players time is one of the worst crimes a game can commit in my opinion.
That’s what I’m hearing about games like Starfield and it’s always been a criticism for games like assassins creed. Like they’re fun games, but the time investment is far too large for what they offer.
The reason it doesn’t apply to sim games or city builders is because you are largely in control of how best your time is spent. That’s why open world games used to rule Steam for a long time and still somewhat do.
Anyways that’s my rant.
Okay so I fully agree on the use of better AI in games as competitors. The AI in games, though sometimes complex, is lacking in a lot of major games and the difficulty setting just basically amps up their damage and health instead of causing them to outplay you.
I think there are two solutions to better competitive games that reduces cheating and they’re already somewhat at work.
The first solution is implementing AI to detect cheating which has been done but very limited in scope. This will require more data collection for the user, but I fully support that if you’re being competitive and not playing casually. Why? Because in person sports also collect plenty of data on you, often even more invasive, to make sure you aren’t cheating. This can be done in collaboration with Microsoft actually because they have the ability to lock down their OS in certain ways while playing competitive games. They just haven’t bothered because no one asks. Same with Linux potentially if someone wanted to make that.
The second important improvement is to raise the stakes for someone who plays any sort of Esport game. I’m reminded of Valve requiring a phone number for CSGO because it’s easy to validate but raises the difficulty and price of cheating and bans. Having a higher price for competitive games is also entirely possible and also raises the stakes to cheat. The less accounts cheaters can buy, the better. Should it ask for a social security card? No. But I think that system bans based on hardware and IP are also important. You can also improve the value/time put into each account to make it more trustworthy. If a person plays CS for thousands of hours, make their account worth something.
And a minor third improvement would be: match people with more matches/xp/hours with other people of similar dedication at similar skill levels. That means cheaters will decrease the more you play and a cheater would have to play for far longer with cheats undetected to get to that point.
There’s plenty that can be done, companies are just doing almost nothing about the problem because cheaters make them money.
Well, an oil spill is still probably worse. Depends on volume of spilled oil. Also depends on if that oil is replaced by using renewables.
The typical spill playbook is to slowly clean this up while also creating emissions elsewhere and also disrupting the environment more to repair the pipeline or whatever alternative they have.
And for good reason. If they trusted user input and took it at face value even for just the current conversation, the user could run wild and get it saying basically anything.
Also chatGPT not having current info is a problem when trying to feed it current info. It will either try to daydream with you or it will follow its data that has hundreds of sources saying they haven’t invaded yet.
As far as covering the companies ass, I think AI models currently have plenty of problems and I’m amazed that corporations can just let this run wild. Even being able to do what OP just did here is a big liability because more laws around AI aren’t even written yet. Companies are fine being sued and expect to be through this. They just think that will cost less than losing out on AI. And I think they’re right.
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Okay so if I ever decide to become a ranking member of a foreign military and get targeted by another foreign intelligence agency, my device may be compromised? Crazy how that works.
I like how Americans are treated like some special class. As if the US hasn’t had collateral damage in their attacks that harm citizens of other countries. The US just uses it as a very weak reason to get more involved…
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Only because it isn’t in the United States
Is that why there’s lead in my hamburger?
“I’m sorry that you were upset about it”
“I feel like I shouldn’t have to keep apologizing but I will anyways”
“I’m sorry if what I did was misinterpreted”
Or my favorite
“It’s not something that I need to apologize for but if it makes you happy”
No I think it has more to do with US and EU positions. He will parrot their opinions because he wants to be seen as an ally. Add that to the support he’s already getting from that region and the answer is that he isn’t allowed a real opinion here
What is the fundamental limit on game streaming?
Let me clarify: We have a certain amount of latency when streaming games from both local and internet servers. In either case, how do we improve that latency and what limits will we run in to as the technology progresses?
What was your experience with graduate school?
I’m considering a graduate degree in engineering but I’m not sure what to expect out of grad school compared to undergrad studies. Share whatever you’d like about your degree, experience earning it, if you’d do it over again, and how it’s affected your life.
How do you find new music to listen to?
I’ve used both Apple Music and Spotify in recent years and while their discovery is okay, it always plays it safe. As if they’ve made a genre that is just for me and won’t play anything outside of that. How do I expand my music horizons?
Newer games have bad achievements and difficulty options right?
Finally getting around to checking out Fallout 4. I played it through without the DLC a while back but I think it’s about time I get down to it on my list and play through the DLCs. I wanted to do it on the survival difficulty or one of the harder ones at least. That led to me checking out the achievements. I don’t keep up with newer games but I didn’t realize achievements have gotten quite this bad. Most of the achievements are ones you get from the story itself, no challenge there. Then I found out there is no achievement for higher difficulties. I enjoy a challenge, it’s why I go back and play games that I enjoy. And I know it’s a reward in and of itself to beat it, but it feels less validating to not have an achievement. Especially in an open world game where people will want to experience more of it.
It’s not even that games have gotten easier per se, but more than they don’t reward playing on harder difficulties and skimp on challenges like achievements. I like harder difficulty
What is your favorite todo app without a subscription?
Looking for an alternative to apps like TickTick and Todoist but I don’t want a subscription to deal with. I can justify a one time purchase of a todo app though as long as it’s reasonable. Any recommendations?
Is there a FOSS alternative to apps like TickTick?
Or even just a good open source paid app?
What software do people here use to edit gifs?
Former President Donald Trump’s legal defense against federal criminal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election is beginning to take shape.
During a speech in New Hampshire Tuesday, Trump argued, as his lawyers have in recent days, that his statements about the election were constitutionally protected speech. He claimed that his First Amendment rights are under attack — not just because he was indicted in connection to his repeated lies that the election had been stolen from him, but also because prosecutors are seeking a protective order preventing him from speaking publicly about evidence revealed as part of the discovery process in the case.
“I’ll be the only politician in American history not allowed to speak because of our corrupt system,” he told the crowd.
John Lauro, a member of his legal team, argued on CNN earlier this week that Trump “had every right to advocate for his position” — including when he “asked” Pence to throw out Electoral College votes from certain s
www.reuters.com US Senator Joe Manchin says 'thinking seriously' about leaving Democratic Party
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a maverick Democrat who has often bucked party leadership, told a radio station in his home state of West Virginia on Thursday that he is "thinking seriously" about leaving the party.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a maverick Democrat who has often bucked party leadership, told a radio station in his home state of West Virginia on Thursday that he is "thinking seriously" about leaving the party.
"I'm not a Washington Democrat," Manchin said in the interview on Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval, a West Virginia Metro News show. "I've been thinking seriously about that (becoming an independent) for quite some time."
Manchin and Democratic-turned-independent colleague Senator Kyrsten Sinema have been thorns in top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer's side since the party won its majority in 2020. Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, including three independents who caucus with them.
Last month Manchin further stirred Democratic concerns with an appearance in the early-voting state of New Hampshire with the "No Labels" group, where he mulled starting a third-party presidential campaign in 2024, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden. Having a third-party candidate would "threaten"
www.reuters.com US proposes January start for Trump election trial
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a federal judge to begin former President Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 2, 2024.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a federal judge to begin former President Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 2, 2024.
That date would have the trial get underway just two weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, a race in which Trump is the front-runner.
U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's office asked a judge in a court filing on Thursday to start the trial on Jan. 2 in part due to the public's interest in a speedy trial.
Smith's office said that interest is "of particular significance here, where the defendant, a former president, is charged with conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens’ legitimate votes."
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment. Prosecutors also predicted it will take about four to six weeks to put forwa
thehill.com What to know about Ohio special election at center of abortion fight
Ohio’s special election Tuesday could raise the threshold for amending the state’s constitution and have a potentially critical impact on the future of abortion rights in the state. With few other …
Ohio’s special election on Tuesday could raise the threshold for amending the state’s constitution and have a potentially critical impact on the future of abortion rights in the state. With few other elections happening in an off year, a ballot measure in Ohio that would enshrine abortion rights in its constitution will be one of the most closely watched elections in November 2023. But first voters will decide this Tuesday on whether a supermajority should be necessary for constitutional amendments, which could require abortion rights advocates to climb a steeper hill to achieve their goal this fall.
Here are three things to know ahead of Ohio’s special election Tuesday:
It’s the first of two key ballot measures in Ohio this year Ohio voters will turn out at the polls twice in three months for ballot measures that will have long-lasting implications.
First, there’s the ballot measure being voted on in a special election on Tuesday. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) and state
Workers fired after complaining about company prayer sessions awarded $50K
Every day, employees at Aurora Pro Services, a North Carolina home-repair company, would gather for a mandatory prayer meeting, according to a federal complaint. They stood in a circle while leaders, including the company owner, allegedly read Bible scriptures and prayed. In the circle, the owner required Aurora’s employees to recite the Lord’s Prayer in unison and requested prayers for poorly performing employees, the complaint alleged. The meetings became “cult-like,” Mackenzie Saunders, a former Aurora employee, alleged in the complaint, filed in June 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Saunders, who is agnostic, attended the meetings after she was hired in November 2020 but stopped going in January 2021. John McGaha, another former employee, said the prayer meetings were about 10 minutes long when he started in the summer of 2020 and stretched to 45 minutes a few months later. When McGaha, an atheist, asked to be excluded from portions of the
Over 120 million people in Eastern US are at risk for severe storms that could bring large hail and damaging winds
www.cnn.com Over 120 million people in Eastern US are at risk for severe storms that could bring large hail and damaging winds | CNN
Over 120 million people in the Eastern US are at risk of severe thunderstorms Monday with damaging wind gusts, large hail, heavy rain and a few tornadoes possible from Philadelphia to Atlanta.
A potent storm system is moving east after battering the Ohio River Valley Sunday and increasing the risk for severe weather Monday across a large area of the country to the east of the Mississippi River.
The worst of it will be from the Appalachians into Maryland, southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C., primarily due to damaging winds. Areas from northeastern Tennessee to parts of Maryland and southern Pennsylvania are under a moderate risk, Level 4 out of 5, for severe storms.
An area from northern Alabama into southern New York, including Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Binghamton, New York, is under an enhanced risk, Level 3 out of 5, for severe storms. A slight risk for severe storms, a Level 2 of 5, spreads from western Alabama to southern New York, including New York City, Pittsburgh, Charleston, South Carolina, Virginia Beach, Virginia and Wilmington, North Carolina. Parts of the Northeast could also see heavy rain
www.reuters.com Ukraine says Russia planning 'false flag' attack at Belarus refinery
The Security Service of Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of preparing to stage a "false flag" attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.
The Security Service of Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of preparing to stage a "false flag" attack at the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus in order to blame Ukrainian saboteurs as part of an effort to draw Minsk into the war in Ukraine.
The attack, it said in a statement on the Telegram app, would be carried out by military and intelligence forces sent by Moscow to Belarus disguised as Wagner mercenaries who were exiled after staging a mutiny in Russia in June.
"Russia plans to accuse Ukraine of what they have done in order to try once again to draw Minsk into the full-scale war against our state," it said in a statement, without providing evidence.
It said its assertions were based on information obtained from several sources, including a captured Russian serviceman.
Belarus is a close Kremlin ally and Moscow's forces used Belarusian territory as a staging ground for their abortive drive towards the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at the beginning of their February 2022 full-scale invasi
www.aljazeera.com Russian court hands jailed Alexey Navalny new 19-year prison sentence
A constant thorn in Putin’s side, Navalny said he expected a ‘Stalinist’ sentence on a slew of extremism charges.
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sentenced to 19 more years in jail on extremism charges which he has dismissed as an attempt to silence him.
The prosecution had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said that he expected a lengthy, “Stalinist” term.
Friday’s verdict marked his fifth criminal conviction; the sentence is the longest of the three he has been handed. Navalny appeared before the judge wearing his prison uniform, smiling and speaking with another defendant.
He is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court in a penal colony east of Moscow. In 2021, he was also sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for a parole violation. The latest trial against Navalny has been taking place behind closed doors in the colony where he is imprisoned.
Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, decried the sentence as “a sinister act of political vengeance that not only targe
www.vox.com Why did the US credit rating just get dinged?
It might have more to do with the country’s political dysfunction than with its solvency.
On August 1, the Fitch Ratings agency downgraded the United States’ long-term credit rating from AAA to AA+ for only the second time in the nation’s history, in what’s generally seen as a signal of concern about the US’s creditworthiness.
Many seemed perplexed by the move. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called it “bizarre and inept,” economist and Bloomberg columnist Mohamed El-Erian said it was “strange,” and the White House said in a statement that the move “defies reality.”
In a statement, Fitch cited three reasons for downgrading the US rating: concerns the US economy is going to deteriorate over the next three years; a high national debt; and repeated political standoffs over managing the country’s finances (specifically, brinksmanship over the country’s self-imposed debt limit, the cap on how much to US can borrow to pay its bills).
However, many economists and other financial experts have expressed bewilderment over the motivation for the downgrade. The agency pro
5 things to know about the latest charges against Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on charges he participated in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results — an effort that reached a bloody crescendo as his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Following an investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, a grand jury voted to charge Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Trump, who has been summoned to appear in court on Thursday, is still the leading candidate in the Republican primary race. If he pleads not guilty (as he has with the other indictments), we could be hearing about his trial as he makes his case for the White House.
Here are five key points to help get you up to speed.
- This is the third criminal indictment for Trump, but it's more than just another legal woe
The former president now faces legal peril in three criminal cases — foll
Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel’s 2020 election interference probe
www.cnn.com Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel's 2020 election interference probe | CNN Politics
Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury on four criminal counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
“Shortly after election day, the Defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results,” the indictment states.
The newest case against Trump strikes at what’s seen as the former president’s most serious betrayal of his constitutional duties, when his efforts to remain in the White House after losing the 2020 election sought to undermine US democracy and the long-held American tradition of a peaceful transfer of presidential power.
The plot to overturn the 2020 election shattered presidential norms and culminated in an unthinkable physical assault on the Capitol on January 6, as Congress met to validate President Joe Biden’s victory. Even before that, Trump engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign tow